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Growing apprehensions have emerged over the possibility of armed conflict between Horn of Africa neighbours, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as hostile rhetoric has ratcheted up in the past few weeks.

What Did Ethiopia Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's demands for access to the maritime outlet through Eritrea has provoked a intense war of words.

PM Abiy Ahmed first openly declared in last year that his nation's sea access was an existential matter, statements that Eritrea ignored.

Relations between the two countries have regularly been difficult. After a long-standing struggle for freedom, the Eritrean state, which has a extensive Red Sea coastline, legally broke away from Ethiopia in 1993, rendering it landlocked.

In 1998, a territorial conflict started in which numerous people were killed.

Recent Statements from Ethiopian Government

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader the army commander have openly claimed sovereignty of Eritrean southern port of the port of Assab – about 60km from the frontier - and implied the intention to capture it through military means.

Recently, Abiy said Ethiopia's "error" of losing entry to the Red Sea as a because of Eritrea's separation would be "corrected in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that the port was "Ethiopian property" and would be given back "by force".

Eritrea's Answer to the Claims

Amid persistent warnings from Ethiopia, Eritrea's response has been limited to concise remarks on online platforms from Information Minister the minister.

Officials have denied Ethiopian requests for sea access describing it as "dangerous" and a "toxic agenda" of "irredentism" – a strategy of claiming back previous domains.

Government spokespeople warned on 16 September that efforts to justify "flagrant aggression" would have major implications for Ethiopia and its regional partners and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Activities on the Border

There have been little evidence of major military movements in the boundary zones between the both nations.

However, in Ethiopia, national TV has shown completion events of many recruits at multiple army bases.

The director of human resources department of the military, General Hachalu, stated recently in an discussion that the military was in a "secure situation" as "numerous of recruits" were enlisting, which he said was "a warning to our opponents".

Past Origins of the Tension

For decades from the late 19th century, the territory was governed by Italian rulers.

Following Italy's defeat, it was then controlled by the UK forces before becoming a associated territory of Ethiopia.

But in 1962 Emperor Haile Selassie I cancelled this system and Eritrea became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long internal conflict followed, finishing with military reversal in the early 1990s. Independence was then endorsed by voters in a referendum in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the governments in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the exact location of their common border, leading to conflict in 1998.

Though this finished in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was partially applied, and the neighbors continued at in dispute.

This ended in 2018, when Abiy made approaches to Eritrean President the president. The two endorsed a declaration that the conflict was concluded – a action that won the Prime Minister the international recognition.

The both administrations were then allies in Ethiopia's recent internal conflict in Tigray.

But relations have since broken down anew.